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NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 06: A copy of the Wall Street Journal and an apple are left in remembrance to Steve Jobs, founder and former CEO of Apple Inc., outside the Apple Store on West 14th Street on October 6, 2011 in New York City. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Apple's latest earnings report demonstrates a shift in its locus of innovation -- from new products, to placating Wall Street. And its imminent debt offering is just a part of what makes me wonder whether Apple could become the next Dell.

While Apple is spending $5 billion of its cash hoard on Steve Jobs' last great innovation -- a new Cupertino headquarters, CEO Tim Cook was raving about the "exciting" products that Apple has in the works.

Unfortunately, this brings to mind the idea of a corporate edifice complex. That's where a successful company builds a monument to its greatness just as it is losing touch with the realities of its market.

For instance Enron built a never-occupied $300 million, 40-story Houston office tower to showcase Enron's trading operation. Apple is not headed for Enron's fate, but the construction of a $5 billion palatial headquarters when the company is -- at best -- between hit products does reflect a certain corporate arrogance.

Fortunately, next generation upstarts come along to pick up the pieces. For example, according to Dalton Caldwell, as it grew, Google moved into an office "originally built by once high-flying SGI" and earlier in its history Facebook moved into the former Palo Alto headquarters of Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle).

Before getting into the details of Apple's debt deal, it's worth pointing out that the evidence on share buybacks is grim when it comes to shareholders. Sure, the buybacks return money to shareholders and reduce the number of shares outstanding -- making it easier to meet earnings per share targets.

But they don't do any favors to shareholders. As I wrote in October 2010, roughly 66% of stock buybacks in 2000 through 2009 lost money for shareholders, according to Michael Gumport of research firm MG Holdings. Gumport analyzed 280 companies during the period -- finding that Dell was among the worst performers -- losing $17 billion on stock buybacks.

Is Apple going the way of Dell? Dell is trying to go private, a move that would add to its debt and take it out of the public eye. Apple is going part of the way -- adding as much as $55 billion in debt to its balance sheet. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple wants to do its part to add to the U.S. deficit by not paying taxes on cash that it holds overseas.

Issuing Apple's first debt -- to be AA-plus rated -- would be a way to dodge taxes on repatriated cash. According to the Journal, "Despite its huge cash stockpile, Apple plans to issue debt to help fund dividend payments and stock buybacks in part because much of its cash is overseas. Raising money in the debt market would help Apple avoid the big tax bill that would come from bringing the cash back to the U.S."

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer sounds like he is in charge now. In Apple's earnings call, he said, "We are continuing to generate significant cash offshore. And repatriating this cash would result in significant tax consequences under current U.S. tax laws."

Maybe Tim Cook will be able to lead the introduction of exciting new products that re-accelerate Apple's growth and boost its stock price. In the meantime, Apple is throwing its cash overboard to keep Wall Street's sharks at bay.

And if Cook fails, Apple's growth would slow down and its fans could turn it into a steady cash generator -- ripe for a leverage buyout.